Inspection of components using transducers positioned at the component surface is performed for a wide variety of component types. As an example, airfoils used in gas turbine engines may be cast as single crystal airfoils. An ultrasonic transducer may be used to inspect the airfoil to inspect grain boundaries to detect defects in the casting. For example, an ultrasonic transducer may be able to detect a sliver grain, void or other defect that occurred during the single crystal casting or heat treating process. In order to obtain usable data from the ultrasonic transducer, the position and orientation of the transducer must be tightly controlled as it is moved across the surface to be measured. This is true for many types of transducers when used to inspect many types of components and is not limited to gas turbine airfoils. For the airfoil application, the use of the transducer may be further complicated when the transducer measurements are made on an airfoil that is inside an assembled gas turbine engine, such as during an “on wing” inspection of the engine. In many such instances, the airfoil being inspected cannot be directly viewed by the personnel performing the inspection, and may only be reached by the use of specialized tools. Therefore, improvements for positioning transducers are still needed in the art.